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The modern smartphone is a true technological marvel. It can have four separate radio transmitter/receivers inside it — one for voice, one for data, one for Bluetooth and another for WiFi.

Not only is it a telephone, but it's also a camera, a notebook, a device to play games, a navigation system that can guide you to a location you've never been to before, a storehouse for all your music and even access to both the Internet and the World Wide Web. The funny thing is that your smartphone can also make your relationships more shallow.

Andrew K Pryzbylski and Netta Weinstein of the University of Essex carried out some rather neat psychological studies.

In the first study, they had 74 participants — 26 women and 48 men, with an average age of 22. They were told that their assigned topic for a conversation was "discuss an interesting event that occurred to you over the past month".

The volunteers then left all of their personal belongings behind, were randomly matched to a partner and then led to a private booth where they had 10 minutes to discuss their assigned conversation topic. Now in the booth, there were three pieces of furniture — two chairs, and a table off to the side. Of course, they each sat in a chair. The trick was with what was left on the table off to one side. Half the time it was a book and a pocket notebook, and the other half it was a book and a mobile phone. Neither of the items belonged to the volunteers. Afterwards, they separately filled out questionnaires about the connectedness of the conversation, how close a relationship they had, and their feelings of closeness during their 10-minute get-together.

In the pairs who had a phone sitting on the table, even though neither of them owned the phone, they each reported a lower quality of relationship and less closeness. So despite them not consciously noticing the phone, it somehow interfered with their frankness.

Think of a group of people sitting down to a meal together in a restaurant. They will be laughing and catching up on the news and swapping stories — but often not with the people at the same table. They'll ignore the people in front of them, and interact with somebody else, somewhere else on the planet. And even if they are not interacting with somebody else somewhere else, they'll be checking their email, or cataloguing their photos, or checking into a social network (you know the kind of thing).

The psychologists then repeated their experiment — but with a twist. Half the time, the assigned topic of conversation was moderately intimate — discuss the "most meaningful events of the past year". The other half of the time, it was totally casual — what were their feelings about plastic Christmas trees? A similar number of people were put through the same rituals sitting in a room with three pieces of furniture — and again, sometimes there was a random mobile phone on the table beside them, and sometimes there was not.

When there was a phone involved, it made no difference to the casual conversation, but a world of difference to the intimate conversation.

But if there was no smart phone nearby, the intimate conversation would "help foster closeness, connectedness, interpersonal trust, and perceptions of empathy — the building blocks of relationships." As Helen Lee Lin further wrote in the magazine Scientific American ... "Because of the many social, instrumental and entertainment options phones (give) us, they often divert our attention (away) from our current environment … Phones may serve as a reminder of the wider network to which we could connect, inhibiting our ability to connect with the people right next to us".

Now the volunteers in the study did not actively notice that there was a mobile phone nearby. But somehow, its mere presence "inhibited the development of interpersonal closeness of trust, and reduced the extent to which individuals felt empathy and understanding from their part".

Today most people in the world have a mobile phone. Every day, there are billions of conversations on these mobile phones. There are also billions of conversations that take place, face-to-face, with a phone placed casually on a table or bar. How are we to deal with the fact that these phones simultaneously "facilitate as well as disrupt human bonding and intimacy"?

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Anthony :

22 Feb 2013 6:14:46pm

I agree. My first reaction is to think that people assumed that they could be recorded or 'listened to' by a third party on the phone. This would be consistent with the fact that the 'trivial/casual' conversation wasn't affected, but the deeper one was.

Mary Lea McTurnan :

28 Feb 2013 12:44:39am

I agree .... Or perhaps casual conversation between study group members was much more comfortable , and therefore satisfying , than 'intimate ' conversation with a relative stranger . That said , this 'study' lacks proper method to construe any corrarilon. I don't buy it

liz :

21 Feb 2013 11:01:55am

That could well be a fact.The people who most often see what I might say as negative, if not downright "hate-filled", are the ones with enough of the wherewithal to jet around the world at will, as well as to invest in the latest technological toys. Many of them adopt the latest buzz-words too, maybe in an attempt to appear younger and "with-it"! In other words, those most conscious of the impression they make on others. They are also the ones least likely to tolerate my point of view as being other than critical of themselves.

peace of king :

25 Feb 2013 9:11:51am

Anyone can do as they please but to not be open and up front when told it is not a secret.Give some consideration to let people in your life be with or not be with what you do.Let's say you swing and your partner knows that one of your partner is gay and plays a female at times just like a lot or ole joes,would you want to know.Hell your partner my be worse than you in what they do,would you want to know and have a choice in what your exposed to.Point being be open when it effects others.

James of WA :

21 Feb 2013 11:03:27am

So what you are saying is that kids these days are just rude ?If i used anthing at the dinner table (home or out) other then my cutlery, i was in for a world of trouble. but this seems not to be the modern standard anymore.

Interesting study tho, would like to see more participants, and larger variables tho.

Louise Pakeman :

21 Feb 2013 12:31:36pm

I think it is a misuse of mobile phones when they are used at family/friends gatherings. People are removed from the party and or discussion when they use their phone. I can see this would not be good for a relationship.

naughtee :

Phillip :

22 Feb 2013 7:19:32am

I don't own one, rarely use one, guest are not welcome to bring it into the bedroom. never..I ask the phone addicts to turn it of when they come into my home, they refuse. I end up pushed aside in my own home, forced into passive waiting silence. more important than honoring friendship, violates friendship.

Hertz Van Rental :

25 Feb 2013 2:53:34pm

Addicts being the operative word. When people reach the stage where they would no more leave home without their phone than they would without their clothes it's pretty sad. Mobile yappers on public transport are the absolute pits.

Rowan T :

24 Feb 2013 1:45:55am

I believe that the results of this study are accurate, I am 20 and have used a mobile phone since I was about 12, but smartphones weren't part of my life yet then and I barely used it. About 5 years ago I got a Nokia N95 smartphone and have been upgrading from smartphone to smartphone since, but only now have I noticed what effects it was having on my relationships, friendships and just general time during the day. At the beginning of this year however, I stopped using my smartphone and haven't used it since, I have an Android tablet, but it doesn't get used like my smartphone used to, it gives me time for others (in person) and I don't feel so compelled to use it all day. Yesterday I deleted my Facebook account after not using it at all this year and I must say I am a lot happier without Facebook and a smartphone with me all the time! just less stresses in my life among the many others.

Lawrence :

24 Feb 2013 7:44:26pm

This conclusion reminds me of a similar study. A man takes a grasshopper and tells it to jump. It jumps. He cuts off two legs and tells it to jump and it does. He cuts off two more legs and tells it to jump and it does. He then cuts off the remaining legs and tells it to jump and it does not.

Mary Lea McTurnan :

Jarred :

26 Feb 2013 6:29:08pm

During important meetings at work, I'm always surprised by the fact that 90% of people will have their phone placed on the table in front of them. It's like some kind of subtle reminder that they could be doing something more important, or more connected, or different at any moment...

Kevin :

26 Feb 2013 9:34:12pm

I noticed two distinct terms: smart phones and mobile phones. The research carried out involved mobile phones, and mobile phones can be just the casual ones or smartphones, but smartphones are not mentioned in the article.

Beatriz :

26 Feb 2013 11:28:09pm

I dont think people would generally be thinking about being recorded. They are being advertised at, distracted, by the phone's presence. Those things are addictive and their capabilities overwhelm me.Its like having several noisy children in the room saying "look at me". An ordinary mobile is more than enough for me

eb :

09 Mar 2013 9:57:45am

all these people assume that all the people have have the same times available to catch up. mine are spread out all over victoria n melb, they also work frantic hours therefore the smartphone is the only way to catch up. our house a tech free nite or two a week it works well.